resistance movement

Opposition movement in a country occupied by an enemy or colonial power, especially in the 20th century; for example, the resistance to Nazism and Nazi occupation in Europe during World War II.

During World War II, resistance in Eastern Europe took the form of guerrilla warfare by partisan bands, for example, in Yugoslavia, Greece, Poland, and behind the German lines in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In more industrialized countries, such as France (where the underground movement was called the Maquis), Belgium, and Czechoslovakia, the action was more sporadic; sabotage in factories and on the railways, propaganda, and the assassination of Germans and collaborators were the main priorities. Resistance, though less problematic for the Nazi dictatorship, also came from the Jews and other inmates of the concentration camps and ghettos of Eastern Europe, and from anti-Nazi groups within Germany itself.